Indian River runs the table for 36th straight title

Fort Pierce, FL—With all 25 individual and team titles to their resume, the Indian River (FL) women's swimming and diving team captured its 36th consecutive NJCAA Women's Swimming and Diving National Championship on Saturday. It is the 40th title overall by the Indian River women's swimming program. The Pioneers swam to a meet-best 1,181 points.

Joining the men's program who won its 44th consecutive title, Indian River put on an all-around impressive performance in front of its home fanbase. The Pioneers topped South Georgia State, Iowa Central, Southwestern Oregon, and Lincoln who rounded out the top five.

Indian River relied on a balanced attack from both freshman and sophomores throughout the four-day event. Rookie Sophia Diagne captured four individual events and was a member of three relay titles to join fellow freshman Camryn Wheals who earned six All-American honors.

Eight different swimmers claimed individual titles for Indian River, including three for Wheals and a pair each for sophomores Courtney Stewart, Courtney Perrett, and Ianthe Van Der Merwe

Sule Van Der Merwe set a NJCAA record in the 1000-yard freestyle with a time of 10:03.51 to top the previous record by almost two seconds.

Van Der Merwe also claimed the 500-yad freestyle and 200-yard butterfly events along with the 800-yard freestyle relay.

Diagne set a new NJCAA record in the 100-yard IM with a time of 56.26 to best thre pevious mark by 0.17. For her efforts, Diagne was named NJCAA Swimmer of the Year.

Sophomore Malin Wallen anchored three relay events for the Piooners while earning five All-America honors.

Chastity Haxton dominated the diving events after registering a score of 386.00 on the 1-meter dive and 359.15 on the 3-meter dive.

South Georgia State claimed its third consecutive runner-up performance highlighted by a second-place finish in the 400-yard medley relay.

Lincoln (IL) relied on a pair of strong diving performances from Nichole Cure and Maddy Christenson to crack the top five.

Iowa Central's third-place finish was boosted by second-place finishes in the 200 and 400-yard freestyle relays.

Monroe's (NY) Alicia Shenal was named the Non-Scholarship Women's Swimmer of the Year.